Assassination of Yugoslav President failed

Jovanovic told the U.S. NBC TV-network that NATO's unilateral and illegal action must be immediately halted in order to create room and potential, both in and outside Yugoslavia, to find a political settlement.

Jovanovic said Yugoslavia's basic position was well known, saying the country was open to international civilian presence in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province within a political settlement of the issue.

We were open to the concept even before the aggression, he said explaining that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Verification Mission to Kosovo and Metohija had decided to withdraw from the province at NATO's request. He said the alliance had been preparing an aggression on Yugoslavia at the time.

Yugoslavia is a sovereign state and we are resolute to defend its sovereignty, he said.

Referring to NATO's criminal raid on and destruction of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's private residence, Jovanovic refuted the NATO aggressors' allegations that the residence had been used for military purposes.

These false claims are nothing but the aggressors' attempt to hide the monstrosity of their action that was an attempted assassination of Milosevic and his family, he said.

This is a crime, a crime against humanity and peace, and someone will have to answer for it one day, he stressed.

The NBC anchor referred to the U.S. law banning assassinations of foreign heads of state. The law is without a precedent in the world. In every sovereign country where law and order rule, the de jure legal system implies that nothing can justify the assassination of a head of state.

It appears that the United States had to adopt such one law because CIA and FBI were in the past directly responsible for assassinations of prominent figures in the world, heads of state included.

Asked to comment on whether the NATO raid on Milosevic's residence was in violation of the law, Jovanovic said facts spoke for themselves, explaining that the residence had been hit by several missiles and that the criminal action had revealed NATO's true intentions.

Commenting on the return of refugees, Jovanovic said the NATO aggression had interrupted the peace process causing tragedy for all Yugoslav citizens, ethnic Albanians included. We have repeatedly invited ethnic Albanians not to leave Kosovo and Metohija calling on those who have left their homes under threats by the ethnic Albanian terrorist organisation calling itself Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), to return, he said.

About 100,000 ethnic Albanians, who have temporarily sought shelter in Macedonia and other countries, have already returned to their homes, and they are absolutely safe, he said.

He said the refugees who had found shelter in Macedonia had been instructed to wait for NATO to occupy Kosovo and Metohija and only then to return to the province. This proves that the alleged expulsion of ethnic Albanians was in fact an exodus aimed at creating a pretext for operations that would lead to the occupation of the province, he said.

Rejecting allegations of the expulsion of ethnic Albanians, Jovanovic said those who had returned to the province had confirmed that they had been instructed not to return and that they had been told horrible lies that their lives would be jeopardised if they did so. The safe return of a large number of ethnic Albanians proves that quite the opposite is the case, he said.